Kagan vows to defend some laws Obama dislikes

[usregimechange]

The Obama administration will defend federal laws in court whether it agrees with them or not, unless a law is clearly unconstitutional or interferes with presidential powers, the administration's top litigator said Thursday.

"I owe clear obligations to Congress," Solicitor General Elena Kagan told judges and lawyers at the annual meeting of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "One of the most important parts of the solicitor general's job is to defend the statutes," including "statutes that the Obama administration wants to change."

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Kagan did not refer to any specific law Thursday. But she said the Justice Department would refuse to defend a law in only two circumstances: if it is clearly unconstitutional, as shown by court rulings since the law passed, or if a congressional enactment "interferes with executive prerogatives."

Her office, which represents the government before the Supreme Court, has historically sided with the president in conflicts with Congress, Kagan said.

On another topic, Kagan endorsed televising Supreme Court hearings, saying Americans who tuned in would see "a debate of extraordinary intellectual depth and richness."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/24/MNV918U8MP.DTL#ixzz0MOJGINRQ